Both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced interpretations of student, school, district, and state testing data can be improved by customizing the traditional norm-referenced test. Improvements that can be made include: (1) increasing the relevance of the test to the curriculum and (2) having greater confidence in the national comparative…

The testing of many American Indian children using standardized exams (achievement, aptitude, ability, and intelligence tests) developed for the majority American society represents a case of cross-cultural testing which is likely to produce invalid results in the form of underestimation of student performance. Requirements for obtaining accurate…

This digest explains basic elements of standardized tests in order to help teachers in making students feel comfortable about taking such tests. Usually created by commercial publishers, standardized tests are designed to provide a common measure of students' performance. They help compare an individual student's performance with the performance…

This digest highlights one tool that teachers use--standardized tests--from the parent's viewpoint. The discussion covers basic features of testing and suggests questions that a parent might ask his or her child's teacher concerning such tests. Standardized tests are usually objective tests sold by commercial publishers and designed to provide a…

This Digest overviews legal challenges in five areas of test use for decision-making in schools: ability tracking, placement in special education classes, test scores as college admissions criteria, test disclosure, and teacher competency testing. Cases illustrating these challenges are described and include: Hobson v. Hansen (1967), Moses v.…

This ERIC Digest discusses implications derived from the final report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, "A Nation at Risk." The first implication is a motivational one for measurement specialists: it is an ego-booster. The report is replete with results yielded from various testing programs, the fruit of the…

This digest focuses on academic testing and American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. Ideally, test results should be used to improve student learning. Proponents of high-stakes testing say it is needed to measure student achievement and school quality and to hold students and teachers accountable. High-stakes testing is also used to…

These guidelines are provided to offer guidance to district and state policy makers and assessment directors concerning some issues of managing the development, administration, and use of performance assessments in large scale assessment programs. The term "performance assessment" is used for assessments that go beyond paper-and-pencil,…

Standardized achievement and aptitude tests may be of very limited value in making placement or instructional decisions about bilingual students. The practice of categorizing standardized test scores by ethnic groups obscures the difficulties of administering and interpreting tests taken by bilinguals. Individuals who are bilingual have two…

Screening programs are now widely used with children who are age-eligible for school entry. Screening is used to identify children who may be at risk of future difficulty in school (e.g., inability to meet academic expectations) and those who may have special needs in learning (e.g., extraordinary abilities and talents or handicapping conditions).…

Failure to include nonnative English speaking students in a testing program, something that is especially important in a state where a high school graduation test is administered, can cost students the opportunity to practice for the test, as well as the opportunity for diagnosis of educational attainment and feedback about their progress. For…

Five of the common misuses of tests are reviewed: (1) acceptance of the test title as an accurate and complete description of the variable being measured (failure to examine the manual and the items carefully to know the specific aspects to be tested can result in misuse through selection of an inappropriate test for a particular purpose or…

This document argues that current efforts to establish a national test to measure progress toward the nation's educational goals will inhibit, rather than advance, educational reform. Proponents of a national test have asked for single, primarily multiple-choice tests, or for performance assessments to measure progress toward the nation's…

Current practices for assessment of language in bilingual students frequently involve the use of tests translated from English to the target language or tests designed for, and normed on, monolingual people. This Digest explains why these common approaches are not well suited for a bilingual population and provides guidance regarding more suitable…

Computerized adaptive tests (CATs) make it possible to estimate the ability of each student during the testing process. The computer presents items to students at the appropriate level, and students take different versions of the same test. Computerized testing increases the flexibility of test management in that: (1) tests are given on demand and…